Joe remembers Raheem The Dream's first two major decisions on defense: moving Jermaine Phillips to linebacker and hiring Jim Bates to install the defense.

Make no mistake. Sunday’s game in Atlanta is critical to the future of Raheem The Dream.

The Jim Bates defrocking can be looked at many different ways, but two things are very clear about the move:

1) Raheem The Dream is sure he can do better — right now — with the Bucs defense.
2) Raheem The Dream believes he is the best defensive coordinator for the Bucs moving forward.

So what if the Bucs don’t improve on defense over the last six games?

Raheem The Dream will have proven that he’s not capable of improving a unit he’s familiar with intimately, and that he’s the wrong guy for the D-coordinator job in 2010 and beyond.

Remember, Raheem The Dream didn’t label himself interim defensive coordinator after kicking Bates to the curb. He’s the guy. And he’s damn happy about taking full control, reports Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune.

“It’s kind of your strength, and it’s kind of what I missed, being a head coach, to be honest with you,” Morris said after running the Bucs through a nearly two-hour workout Thanksgiving morning. “(I had) to be a director and the general and the leader and the manager (but) now I can pick up another title and be back on the field and be hands-on again.”

Joe suspects the Glazers are not about to let Raheem The Dream and Mark Dominik go coordinator-shopping in the offseason if the head coach can’t bring the Bucs up from putrid to below average on defense.

This is it for Raheem The Dream.

If he can’t perform better than Jim Bates, then what good is he?